http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/solar-by-technology-renewable-energy-news/ja-solar-raises-outlook-on-record-revenue-shipments-and-income.html

China-based solar cell manufacturing company JA Solar has raised its full-year 2010 earnings guidance on the back of record shipments, revenue and income for the third financial quarter, following a sharp production ramp-up.

The Nasdaq-listed company shipped more solar products during 2010 to date than in its entire history, and is confident this level of growth will not abate.
‘We expect to continue to grow in the fourth quarter and we are raising our full year 2010 shipment guidance from 1.35GW to 1.45GW,’ said Dr Peng Fang, CEO of JA Solar.
For the year so far, it has shipped solar products with a combined capacity of 1GW, exceeding the cumulative shipments from its inception through until the end of last year.
Topping its preliminarily increased expectations for the quarter, the company achieved record shipments of 418MW, representing a 34 per cent increase on the second quarter.
This result far outweighed its original guidance of 375MW for the quarter, and also outstripped the updated preliminary expectations it announced last month, of 410MW.
The company generated $541m in revenue during the third quarter – a record result that was 52 per cent above its second quarter revenues.
During the latest quarter, it lowered its operating expenses to account for 4.1 per cent of total revenue, less than the anticipated six per cent.
Its operating income hit a healthy $99.9m and its balance sheet stayed buoyant at $309m, with $539m in working capital.
This combination of lower costs and record results is reflected in the company’s gross quarterly profit, which reached $121.8m, pushing its gross margin up more than two per cent above guidance levels, to 22.5 per cent.
Its net income also increased to a record level of $76.8m, 161 per cent higher than in the second quarter, on earnings per share of $0.47.
Throughout the quarter, the company diversified its customer base, which now includes a majority of international customers, with strong growth in end markets in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia.
These improvements have potential to last throughout next year, as the company has already signed supply agreements with a number of global customers, due for delivery in 2011, exceeding 1.2GW.
Fang said, ‘We continued to strengthen our market leadership by expanding our annual cell manufacturing capacity to 1.8GW at the end of September, and we recently reached 1.9GW of solar cell capacity, ahead of our capacity expansion schedule.’